期刊名称：WAAC Newsletter / Western Association for Art Conservation
电子版ISSN：1052-0066
出版年度：2010
卷号：32
期号：3
出版社：Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC)
摘要：Thomas Eakins' masterpiece, The Gross Clinic (1875), is undergoing con- servation treatment at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The 8-by-6-foot canvas has had a checkered history of restoration and intervention which will be the subject of an exhibition An Eakins M asterpiece Restored: Seeing The Gross Clinic Anew. The show will explore the history of the painting as a work of art subje ct to the shifting desires and tastes of its longtime owner - Thomas Jefferson University - and the efforts of early conservators and restorers. How to return this pa inting to what Eakins intended has been the sub- ject of intense discussion among curators and conservators at the Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, its institutional owners, for two years. X-rays revealed that Eakins changed his composi- tion during work on the painting. Conservators and restorers of the past dissolved figures, erased final finishes, exposed lower paint layers, and weakened the composition. In the 1940s, the canvas was glued to two pieces of plywood. Less than two decades later, the plywood had started to warp. The museum's respected conservator at the time, Theodor Siegl, painstakingly removed the wood and glue. That effort not only saved the painting from disaster, but it also has al- lowed conservators to easily remove all restoration work; apply a translucent, re- movable varnish; and ponder what to do next.
